And this may seem a small point but any retailer that didn’t know what kind of year they had until the Federal Government told them is not one that will be around for long.

Post writer Ylan Q. Mui does give some space to a potential downer amidst the good sales number:

“Martin also noted that while retailers rang up more sales, foot traffic fell 1.7 percent, compared with the same period last year. He said consumers likely had consolidated their shopping trips to save time and gasoline. The drop also could be because shoppers made fewer purchases, choosing to spend big bucks on one must-have item, such as a flat-screen TV set, Martin said.”

…or maybe more people than ever bought on line. Actually I’m not just making that up. The Post reported on that last week although even then they didn’t speculate on whether the non-inclusion of internet sales were a factor in what it thought were disappointing holiday sales.